From the stark glare of paralyzing grief to the shadow eroticism of a neo-gothic romance, "Il Futuro" makes for a peculiar strain of otherworldly viewing. An exquisitely shot love-among-the-ruins story adapted by Chilean filmmaker Alicia Scherson from a novel by her late countryman, the cult author Roberto Bolaño, it begins with a pair of dazed, bored teenagers, Bianca (Manuela Martelli) and younger brother Tomas (Luigi Ciardo), facing uncertain times in a rundown Rome apartment following their parents' death from a car accident.

Huntington Beach police are seeking the public's help in finding a man who robbed and sexually assaulted a woman. Police said the attack occurred Oct. 3 around 1 a.m. as the woman was returning to her home near Bolsa Chica Road and Warner Avenue. The man was armed with a gun and approached the woman from behind. He grabbed her and covered her mouth with his hand, according to the Huntington Beach Police Department. "The suspect was in possession of a handgun and told the victim not to scream," police officials said in a statement.

A series of sexual assaults and robberies at massage parlors that investigators initially believed were the work of a serial rapist now appear to be the acts of two men, operating separately, authorities said. In a news conference Thursday, Riverside police said that one of the men believed to be connected to the string of violent attacks had been arrested and arraigned in the 2008 sexual assault and robbery of three women in Riverside County and 2009 robberies of two women in Corona.

There were 8,953 robberies and 320 kidnappings last year in Los Angeles. Numbers like that have always felt abstract to me. But I realize now that behind each of those robberies and kidnappings, there's a story. I say this with some authority because at 11:15 a.m. on Aug. 29, I became one. I woke up that morning ready for battle. Preschool was closed, my 3-year-old son, Dean, needed sneakers and my father-in-law - our kids call him Nana - was in town. Our morning activity would be a surgical strike on the Fashion Square Mall in Sherman Oaks.

More than a dozen detectives are investigating a shooting in a tony Encino neighborhood that left an 80-year-old man dead Thursday morning, Los Angeles police officials said. Harvey Cohen died at a hospital after suffering a single gunshot during a possible home invasion in the 5300 block of Andasol Avenue, KTLA reported. Cohen's wife heard a noise early Thursday and went downstairs and found her husband lying on the floor, according to KTLA. Cohen had apparently confronted the suspect as he entered his home about 2:30 a.m., police said.

Police are investigating the shooting death of a clerk at a discount store in Florence two blocks from the LAPD's 77th Street station. Martha Sanchez, a 39-year-old mother of five, was killed about 8:50 p.m. Tuesday at the Happy Bargain store in the 7400 block of Broadway by a man "who walked into the store, robbed it and shot Sanchez numerous times" before fleeing on foot, according to a news release from the Los Angeles Police Department....

A woman in her 20s was shot and killed during a robbery in South Los Angeles, police said Tuesday night. The incident was reported around 9 p.m. near Broadway and 74th Street in the Florence neighborhood, the Los Angeles Police Department said. The woman was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead. She was 25 to 29 years old, the LAPD said. Detectives were at the scene gathering evidence late Tuesday. Since January 2007, at least 264 homicides have been reported within two miles of the woman's slaying, according to The Times Homicide Report database.

A Manhattan Beach woman who walked in on two men burglarizing her home was tied up at gunpoint for several hours while the residence was raided, police said Friday. Manhattan Beach police went to the 1600 block of 5th Street about 12:30 a.m. Friday and said the robbery was in progress when the woman came home. "The victim was tied up at gunpoint for several hours while the house was ransacked," Manhattan Beach Police Department officials said in a statement. "The victim's father arrived home several hours later.

A man and a woman were beaten and robbed in their San Pedro home early Wednesday, authorities said. Two people entered the home in the 300 block of N. Mesa Street at about 2 a.m. and stole money and other items, according to Los Angeles police officials. The victims suffered injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening. A description of the robbers was not immediately available, with the investigation still in its early stages. It was L.A.'s second home-invasion robbery in as many days.